Noel Francis
Noel Francis was born in Temple, Texas in 1906. By age 20 she was appearing in the Ziegfeld Follies, working opposite the comedy team of Wheeler and Woolsey. Eventually Fox scouts noticed her and in 1929 she was signed to a Hollywood contract. Because of her Follies background, Fox intended to develop Noel as a musical and dance star. Unfortunately, musicals were on the wane at the time (they did rebound) and her contract was dropped. Luckily, she was picked up by Warner Brothers, and featured in a number of films that had her portraying the tough talking, sassy female connected to gangsters, convicts, and other underworld types, so popular with the movie going public then and now. Noel was rarely given the lead female role, though she worked near the top with some of the era's best actors in films that included Smart Money (1931), in which she is a scheming blonde helping Edward G. Robinson lose his money, and Blonde Crazy (1931), where her target is James Cagney. Her most noted performance was in I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932), working with Paul Muni in one of his strongest performances. However, perhaps because of being typecast, she found herself in "B" productions after 1932, though one was as the lead female, in Mayfair Picture Corporation's 1934 What's Your Racket?, opposite Regis Toomey. Needing work, Noel returned to Broadway, but couldn't resume her career there, and returned to Hollywood to make three final films with Buck Jones, including Stone of ...
Havana Widows (1933)
Two golddiggers go fishing for millionaires in Havana. (more)
Two golddiggers go fishing for millionaires in Havana. (more)
So Big! (1932)
A farmer's widow takes on the land and her late husband's tempestuous son. (more)
A farmer's widow takes on the land and her late husband's tempestuous son. (more)
Bureau of Missing Persons (1933)
Butch Saunders has been transferred to Missing Persons because he was too brutal in other police work... (more)
Butch Saunders has been transferred to Missing Persons because he was too brutal in other police work... (more)
Blonde Crazy (1931)
Adventures of a cocky con man and his beautiful accomplice. (more)
Adventures of a cocky con man and his beautiful accomplice. (more)
Up the River (1930)
My Pal, the King (1932)
The king of a European country, who is a child, meets the cowboy star of a traveling circus. (more)
The king of a European country, who is a child, meets the cowboy star of a traveling circus. (more)
The Mouthpiece (1932)
A prosecutor quits his job and becomes a defense attorney when he finds out that a man he got convicted and executed was actually innocent. (more)
A prosecutor quits his job and becomes a defense attorney when he finds out that a man he got convicted and executed was actually innocent. (more)
Flames
(1932)
Brown is a confident young firefighter. He and his buddy become interested in two girls, after saving their cat. He then fights a fire in the apartment building next door to his new girlfriend. (more)
Brown is a confident young firefighter. He and his buddy become interested in two girls, after saving their cat. He then fights a fire in the apartment building next door to his new girlfriend. (more)
Guilty as Hell (1932)
Richard Arlen is the convicted murderer and Adrienne Ames his sister who believes in his innocence. We see the murder and the framing set-up at the beginning of the film, so there’s no mystery for the audience to solve. Just the pleasure of watching an intricate ... (more)
Richard Arlen is the convicted murderer and Adrienne Ames his sister who believes in his innocence. We see the murder and the framing set-up at the beginning of the film, so there’s no mystery for the audience to solve. Just the pleasure of watching an intricate ... (more)
The Important Witness (1933)
A freelance stenographer is hired for a job, but when she arrives at the address she was given, she finds that a murder has taken place there--and she is arrested for it. (more)
A freelance stenographer is hired for a job, but when she arrives at the address she was given, she finds that a murder has taken place there--and she is arrested for it. (more)
Fifteen Wives (1934)
Shortly after his arrival from South America to New York, Steven Humbolt is found dead in his apartment at the Savoia Hotel. Inspector Decker Dawes investigates the case and although the cause of death is described as apoplexy, Dawes is convinced it as murder, ... (more)
Shortly after his arrival from South America to New York, Steven Humbolt is found dead in his apartment at the Savoia Hotel. Inspector Decker Dawes investigates the case and although the cause of death is described as apoplexy, Dawes is convinced it as murder, ... (more)
Reform Girl (1933)
A young girl just out of prison and desperate for money finds herself involved in a plot to smear a politician by pretending to be his long-lost daughter. (more)
A young girl just out of prison and desperate for money finds herself involved in a plot to smear a politician by pretending to be his long-lost daughter. (more)
Ladies of the Big House (1931)
A woman tries to save her husband from the electric chair after both are sent to prison for a murder they didn't commit. (more)
A woman tries to save her husband from the electric chair after both are sent to prison for a murder they didn't commit. (more)
Rough Romance (1930)
Love and logging in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon. (more)
Love and logging in the Cascade Mountains of Oregon. (more)
Sudden Bill Dorn (1937)
Bundy has found gold on the Kent ranch but directs everyone to Ghost Town as he tries to take over the ranch. But Bill and Kent's niece Lorna have taken possession. When it appears Bundy is attracted to Lorna, his jealous girl friend has men destroy the ranch and ... (more)
Bundy has found gold on the Kent ranch but directs everyone to Ghost Town as he tries to take over the ranch. But Bill and Kent's niece Lorna have taken possession. When it appears Bundy is attracted to Lorna, his jealous girl friend has men destroy the ranch and ... (more)